...And The Raven Spoke To Me Of Grace

Sometimes life's lesson is about waiting.

Let's take a moment to settle in and be completely comfortable to listen to Raven's teachings today.

Assuming you are comfortable in the way you are sitting or lying down,

May I suggest you use your hands to bring comfort to your chest or abdomen or both and then relax into this position allowing your shoulders to lower and soften and begin to take a few breaths together with me.

Breathing in and one more time in.

The universe speaks to you in the quiet saying it's alright to take this time.

May life's challenges resuscitate you.

May you heed the call to act or react.

May all of nature soothe you through these challenges and may the light of your intention keep you safe,

Keep you engaged and keep you sane.

All of our life's moments lead to now.

The healing space of now.

An opportunity to restore balance and freedom.

A space of light versus darkness.

Surprisingly always with us because it is always now.

A potentially healing space of now where if you don't get it right the first time you can try all over again for it is always now.

Always an opportunity to restore balance and freedom.

Always an opportunity to take pleasure in the now.

What if?

What if we could perceive these special moments of now as moments of grace and moments of grace as moments of glory?

What if we could mentally stop long enough in the moment of now to realize that such moments mean a lot to us and that they might mean a lot to another with whom we share them?

What if we could recognize that these special moments of now happen all of the time?

And what if we could stop physically,

Mentally,

Emotionally and spiritually to embrace them rather than have them pass us by?

Can Raven teach us how to do this?

And the Raven spoke to me.

Raven,

As many of its feathered animal friends,

Represent grace in its complete patience and subsequent presence to wait when waiting is needed.

Whether to catch its prey or to raise its young or to watch over or lovingly stand by its charge.

The wait,

The practice of both patience and presence,

Becomes the vehicle for grace.

Brother,

Sister,

Go more slowly.

All of life is holy.

All of life is holy.

I was introduced to these words by renowned American author Joyce Rupp during an evening of inspiration and awakening to her view on life.

As part of that evening many years ago,

She taught us to sing these words as a round,

Accentuating their endless meaning.

Brother,

Sister,

Go more slowly.

All of life is holy.

All of life is holy.

They spell out a simple reminder to us all to slow down and embrace the now.

For all of life is an opportunity to find the sacredness that exists in life.

And within the sacredness,

To experience its meaning,

Its joy,

Its light,

Its hope,

Its trust,

And its freedom from fear.

Wrapped up in the embrace of love by one word,

Grace.

Waiting is such an unusual word for us to be discussing.

Life as we know it in the 21st century is not about waiting.

It's about everything happening faster and faster.

We expect our phones and computers to download or upload instantly so we do not have to wait.

We pay extra for this kind of service from our internet carriers so we do not have to wait.

Our highway speed limits have increased.

New drivers must learn to drive this speed also so as not to cause a collision when they are still learning to drive safely.

Think about this for a moment.

And we speak more quickly.

We take shortcuts in communication to avoid speaking to someone directly.

We send texts to make a point or to ask a question,

Often without the full context of the message being given,

As though written in some sort of code.

We even use emojis instead of words.

And we become impatient if our text is not understood or responded to within very short order.

I do this also.

This is a society we live within today.

And we are being asked by Raven to wait?

And the Raven spoke to me.

Raven represents grace in its complete patience and subsequent presence to wait when waiting is needed.

The wait,

The practice of both patience and presence,

Becomes the vehicle for grace.

Superimposed upon this reality of the 21st century need to not wait is the equal reality that many,

If not most of us,

Have not learned the grace of waiting.

Put in other words,

We have not learned that now can be a healing space for us.

The subject of grace is about learning to embrace life rather than to resist it.

This comes with life experience and maturity of outlook on life,

Or even attitude,

Whether one is 18 years old or 80.

That Raven teaches us grace through the patience of waiting suggests that we pause before reacting.

That's the waiting part,

Pausing.

Pausing allows us to cool off when this is what is needed.

Pausing also allows us to recenter and refocus our mind,

Such that we might view something from a much larger perspective,

Such as the Raven in flight might view from above the scenario that causes our need to pause.

A broader view allows us to see all sides of the scenario,

Not simply our own.

Our reaction then can come from this centered,

Calm,

And peaceful part of us,

Allowing us to open and listen more intensely,

Or to respond more respectfully and easily within our complete presence.

Complete presence is grace.

Working its magic in communication with the family,

Within the workplace,

And within all we do.

The wait,

The practice of both patience and presence,

Becomes the vehicle for grace.

And the Raven spoke to me.

It's time to surrender,

To let go with grace.

For when we surrender with grace,

We are more capable to know and understand grace as we give over to surrender.

This is not white flag surrender under duress.

This is surrendering to a new perspective,

A new means of behaving,

A commitment to listening to your inner guidance,

Whose voice you may not have learned to hear,

Or trust,

Or fully appreciate.

Repeat the words of this mantra I'm about to say a few times,

And slow your speed of reading them.

I'll read with you.

Surrender with grace.

Grace with surrender.

Surrender with grace.

Grace with surrender.

Surrender with grace.

Grace with surrender.

Surrender with grace.

Grace with surrender.

Notice if you don't take a slower breath,

And lower your shoulders just a little,

As you surrender with grace,

And experience grace with surrender.

Grace is not just a behavioral,

Or feeling,

Or organic sense we eventually achieve by trying to live our life in love and in peace.

It is this.

However,

It is more than this.

Grace is also an action word,

And it is a healing word.

Grace requires that we put forth its graceful energy as we surrender to its healing potential.

In other words,

Grace teaches us to respond to our challenges as though the active energy of grace is already working within us.

This is Raven's message of waiting,

When complete presence and patience are needed to meet whatever is happening in this moment.

To surrender with grace,

And to develop grace within us as we surrender.

We need to be able to let go,

To trust,

And surrender in order to find the peacefulness of grace.

I might add here that this is one of the most challenging aspects of the spiritual journey.

As we saw last time in our discussion of joy,

It is sometimes very difficult to let go.

Do you remember the visual of a single maple leaf holding on to its branch for dear life,

Despite the cold of the November winds,

Holding on for hours after its sister leaves had all dropped to the ground?

There can be such determination in holding on and not wanting to let go.

And the Raven spoke to me.

Raven represents grace in its complete patience and subsequent presence to wait when waiting is needed.

The wait,

The practice of both patience and presence becomes the vehicle for grace.

In human terms,

Perhaps the holding on is part of our waiting,

To take the time to size up everything before letting go.

The process of learning to surrender when surrender is such a new thing for us,

A new venture of trust we cannot yet imagine.

And yet,

Raven represents grace through all of this.

Patience and grace while we work through our need to wait before letting go.

Otherwise,

We will never know the sustenance that follows our patient presence,

Our reward for waiting.

We will never know this vehicle of grace where light,

Love,

Peace and joy reside.

Surrender through patience and presence with grace.

Grace through patience and presence with surrender.

And the Raven spoke to me.

Raven remembers traumatic incidents of the past but does not dwell on them because survival means to be fully present mentally to what is going on around you now.

Despite those scars of hurt and unresolved conflicts we carry beneath our skin,

Raven teaches us not to dwell on our hurtful memories of the past.

Instead,

To be more fully present to the now.

Raven's very survival depends upon this.

By making the past the focus of your life,

Rather than what is going on around you now,

Leaves you completely vulnerable in the present.

Living within the presence and awareness of now opens you to the healing potential for light,

Joy,

Peace and love to enter your soul.

To survive sadness and scars of the past by being fully present now to all that is going on around you now.

To accomplish this,

Realize the presence of now changes from one second to the next.

Try to be fully present to the moment of now for one second.

Notice if you fall back into the past in the next second.

It is a practice to become aware of this and it is a practice to change it now.

Try to live your life fully by committing to living the presence of now for more than one second at a time until the presence of now becomes your new reality.

And the Raven spoke to me.

Raven will help you to resolve fear and insecurity and scars of hurt and unresolved conflict by imagining that you are Raven and see these negative emotions simply dissolve into nothingness as Raven begins to soar above your darkness,

Restoring once again your light.

Scars of hurt and unresolved conflict create a disruption within us of our natural flow of energy.

To soar above your own inner darkness as Raven does is to forgive.

In forgiveness,

That which caused our natural energy flow to stop no longer exists in this moment in our minds and our homeostasis is reinstated.

To not forgive is to resist the natural flow of energy,

Creating an obstruction within our own internal pathways of energy,

Preventing us from healing naturally and restoring us to live our life fully.

And the Raven spoke to me.

The Raven offers continual expansiveness to your thinking by soaring above the earth and seeing beyond and teaching you to do the same,

Connecting you with nature beyond time and space,

With the peace that is always possible to be found in the higher dimensions of yourself.

With a grace of forgiveness is not only possible,

It restores meaning to life.

Grace of forgiveness is not only possible,

It restores meaning to life.

Grace is a subtle quality of inner knowing,

A quietness that calms and reassures us that we are never alone in our struggle and that when we react from an internal place aligned in light and love,

We will make the right choices unaffected by fear,

Judgment or abandonment,

Where we live a life that reflects the symbolic qualities of grace,

Timeless patterns of trust and delicate beauty within strength and eternal love.

I hope you have enjoyed this collection of Raven's teachings.

Please remember to be kind,

Loving and gentle with yourself.

For we are each,

After all,

In training to be the light ourselves.

Namaste.

I bow to the divine in each of you.